Advocates and foes mark the anniversary of landmark abortion ruling

Andrea Ferrigno, corporate vice president of Whole Woman's Health, right, and Amy Hagstrom Miller, president, speak inside the Austin location of Whole Woman's Health. The abortion clinic reopened in May, after having closed while House Bill 2 was in effect. Part of the bill was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. less

Mary Banda, right, and Sylvia Davila gather with others to pray and protest in front of the Planned Parenthood South Texas' new ambulatory surgical center for abortions at 2140 Babcock on March 9, 2015.

Mary Banda, right, and Sylvia Davila gather with others to pray and protest in front of the Planned Parenthood South Texas' new ambulatory surgical center for abortions at 2140 Babcock on March 9, 2015.

Photo: Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

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Reproductive Services of Harlingen owner Dr. Lester Minto spoke about the effects of House Bill 2 in July 2013 at his abortion clinic. He said he closed it because of the new restrictions, which were later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. less

Reproductive Services of Harlingen owner Dr. Lester Minto spoke about the effects of House Bill 2 in July 2013 at his abortion clinic. He said he closed it because of the new restrictions, which were later ... more

Photo: Edward A. Ornelas /San Antonio Express-News

Advocates and foes mark the anniversary of landmark abortion ruling

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On this day one year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down two major provisions of a 2013 abortion law that — in the three years it was in effect — closed more than half of Texas’ approximately 40 abortion clinics, leaving wide swaths of the state without a single provider, especially South Texas and the western Panhandle region.

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The state had argued before the highest court that two requirements in House Bill 2 — that abortion clinics must offer the level of care found in outpatient ambulatory surgical centers and that doctors must have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals — were necessary to protect the health and safety of women. In a 5-to-3 decision, the justices disagreed, and in fact found the regulations hindered women in their constitutional right to obtain an abortion.

Abortion rights advocates cheered the demise of two provisions of House Bill 2, but the lead plaintiff in the landmark case, Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt, acknowledged that long-lasting change has occurred.

“(HB2) decimated the abortion care environment across the Midwest and South Texas, “ said Amy Hagstrom Miller, executive director of Whole Woman’s Health, which has four abortion clinics in the state. “We won a huge legal battle against great odds that secured justice on paper, but the rebuilding of the care infrastructure is going to take an enormous amount of time and energy and capital.”

Joe Pojman, head of Texas Alliance for Life, said he had mixed feelings on the anniversary of the historic decision.

“Obviously, we think the closures are a good thing, especially when combined with increases in the Alternative to Abortion program in Texas,” Pojman said, referring to the $18 million that the state gave in the current two-year budget to crisis pregnancy centers that seek to convince women to not have abortions while providing other kinds of care.

Pojman said many abortion clinics in Texas closed before HB2 went into effect, and that many closures were linked to earlier cuts in family-planning funding, especially to Planned Parenthood, and weren’t the result of HB2.

That said, he and other abortion foes consider the repeal of HB2 “a severe setback,” he said. “Our interpretation is that the court doesn’t permit Texas and other states to require the same safety standards at abortion clinics that is required at other facilities for comparable procedures,” he said.

The legacy of HB2can also be told in statistics. The number of abortions in Texas dropped 14 percent from 2013 to 2014, from 64,000 to 55,000 annually, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. A study by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project at UT Austin on HB2’s impact found abortions declined by half in some counties, especially rural ones that lost an abortion provider or where driving distances increased by 100 miles or more.

The same study found an uptick in abortions later in pregnancy, likely a result of women struggling to find care earlier in their pregnancies, the study’s authors said.

Planned Parenthood South Texas, the affiliate in San Antonio, responded to the mandates of HB2 by building a new $6.5 million ambulatory surgical center on Babcock Road, near the Medical Center, which opened in 2015. The organization operates four other clinics in San Antonio, none of which provide abortions.

Jeffrey Hons, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Texas, said the move to build the center and comply with the state’s rules was the right decision, even though the surgical-center provision was ultimately struck down.

“We have no buyer’s remorse,” he said, adding that the group had outgrown its previous abortion clinic location around the time that HB2 passed. “The outcome (of the Supreme Court’s decision) was unknown, and Planned Parenthood wasn’t going to tell women that their health care was going to be left hanging.”

Kellie Gretschel, head of the San Antonio Coalition for Life, wasn’t familiar with the possible link between HB2 and a rise in later-term abortions, but said correlation doesn’t necessarily imply causation. The goal of her group, members of which regularly protest at the Planned Parenthood ACS, is to “change the culture.”

“You can legislate all day, but what we have to do is change people’s hearts,” she said. For many women, abortion is an act of desperation: If you can address the underlying issues — not enough money, lack of medical care, coercion by a boyfriend — you can eradicate the procedure.

“We need to educate women and assure them it’s OK to place their child for adoption,” she said. “There are so many stereotypes about adoption still lingering.”

Miller said one of the positive legacies of the Whole Woman’s victory is that states “can’t pass abortion laws willy-nilly that are not based in science and fact.” After the Supreme Court decision, laws similar to HB2 in a handful of other states were repealed or not put into effect, she said. The ruling could also be used retroactively to wipe out previous restrictions passed by conservative lawmakers.

“We’re still on the precipice of seeing how this historic decision might be used to repeal bad laws that have been on the books a long time,” she said.